Ianto joins Rhys for the lads’ barbecue – but things don’t go to plan.

One of the great strengths of Big Finish’s Torchwood range is its versatility, with huge world-threatening events in one story counterpointed with a much more down to Earth character piece in another. Tim Foley has produced one of the latter for this near-two hander for Kai Owen and Gareth David-Lloyd as Rhys and Ianto, two characters who don’t get that much interaction in the broadcast show.

It’s a story that picks up on a key event in Rhys’ life that we slowly but surely get to understand as the play proceeds, and it gives Foley a chance to talk about male emotions and the handling (or lack or handling) thereof. Owen and David-Lloyd’s characters are forced into a conversation that at least one of them would rather not have, particularly as their little social bubble in Rhys’ garden takes on a whole new meaning.

Youssef Kerkour has a fascinating double role in this, and is very affecting – it’d be good to hear more from him, and indeed the characters that he plays. Joe Meiners’ sound design is careful and at times subtle – it’s as much in what he doesn’t add to a scene as what he does – and Scott Handcock’s direction allows Blair Mowat’s music score to breathe.

Verdict: A different sort of Torchwood audio that shows not all threats have to be world-ending. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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